Principles for Access to Medicines and Trade
February 23, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — More than 100 organizations, including Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM), outline Principles for Access to Medicines and Trade that urge countries to reject the Trump administration’s attacks and commit to global trade policy that protects access to affordable medicines.
“The Trump administration is using U.S. trade power and extreme tariffs to bully other countries into binding agreements that undermine affordable and readily available access to medicines.”
The health and trade experts call for trade approaches that preserve countries’ abilities to:
Ensure affordable prices for all.
Reject corporate bullying.
Enable plentiful supply of medicines.
Ensure the safety, efficacy, and quality of medicines.
Freely determine which international treaties are beneficial.
Adhere to transparent and accountable trade processes.
Read the Principles for Access to Medicines and Trade. (En español)
Additional resources:
TACD raises concerns on use of tariff threats to increase medicine prices in Europe(TACD, February 2026)
Essential Changes Needed to the USMCA to Remove Impediments to Public Health (Public Citizen & Health GAP, July 2026)
Raising Prescription Drug Prices Abroad Will Not Lower Prices in the U.S. (Public Citizen, June 2025)
Europe Must Not Bow to Big Pharma (Letter from civil society organizations; People’s Medicine Alliance, May 2025)
Resolution on delinking the incentives to invest in biomedical R&D from the prices of products and services (TACD, September 2018)
Resolution on Access to Medicines (TACD, November 2014)
Resolution on Innovation and Access to Medical Technologies (TACD, June 2011)
A Letter to the WHO Proposing a Medical R&D Treaty (Letter from civil society organizations, government officials, others; Knowledge Ecology International, February 2005)